Software & Apps News - Page 3

Millions of Windows systems around the world are experiencing the blue screen of death or are stuck in repetitive boot loops after an update was rolled out by the cybersecurity software platform CrowdStrike, which provides cybersecurity solutions to Microsoft.

The outage is truly global, with reports indicating severe outages across Australia, India, and various other locations. Critical infrastructure has been affected across Australia, with banks, airlines, payment systems, telecommunications providers, and emergency services being knocked offline. Supermarkets and other retailers across Australia are closing their doors as they are unable to access their point-of-sale systems.

So, how do you fix a Windows blue screen of death (BSOD)? Microsoft states in its blogpost that a BSOD presents itself when a serious issue is detected in Windows. That issue can be either hardware or software-related. To bypass the blue screen of death a user will need to boot the computer in Safe Mode or Windows recovery environment. The steps for that process can be found below.

IT security firm CrowdStrike has experienced an outage that has resulted in millions of Windows PCs around the world being knocked offline.

The outage hasn't just affected PCs at home, but also critical infrastructure across multiple countries. CrowdStrike, which provides cybersecurity solutions to Microsoft for its Windows operating system, issued an update on Friday, which is suspected to be the cause of millions of Windows PCs getting hit blue screens of death (BSOD) error messages. Some reports indicate Windows PCs are being thrown in repetitive boot cycles.

What has this affected? Airlines across multiple countries have been grounded, 911 services in various states in the US are down, news outlets have been knocked offline in Australia, and some Point-of-Sale (POS) systems have been disrupted. Australia is seemingly experiencing the worst of the problem, as universities, POS systems, banks, telecommunications providers, and more have been knocked offline.

An outage due to a failure of CrowdStrike, a cybersecurity platform that provides cybersecurity solutions for Microsoft, has caused the 911 service to be unusable in multiple US states.

A major IT outage began unfolding globally only a matter of hours ago as the cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, which provides cybersecurity solutions to Microsoft for its Windows operating system, confirmed it experienced an issue that has resulted in many systems becoming unusable, including critical infrastructure such health services and emergency services.

The outage at CrowdStrike has affected many IT systems worldwide, including multiple countries such as India, Australia, Germany, and US emergency 911 services, along with select US airlines. The outage has seemingly hit Australia the hardest, as reports indicate some digital payments systems are now down, planes have been grounded, Sky News was knocked off the air, banks, telecommunications companies, and more.

On Sunday, the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) said it was struggling to gain access to the phone owned by the man identified as Donald Trump's shooter.

The phone owned by Thomas Matthew Crooks, the man who shot and wounded former US President Donald Trump on July 13, had his phone seized by the FBI, who attempted to gain access to it in hopes of establishing a clear motivation for the attempted assassination. However, the FBI was unable to it themselves and contacted Israeli digital intelligence company Cellebrite, which specializes in providing data management tools for federal, state, and local law enforcement, along with enterprise companies.

The information comes from Bloomberg, who was in contact with people close to the investigation who requested anonymity to be able to speak freely. The local FBI bureau in Pittsburgh uses the Cellebrite software, but that software couldn't bypass the security on Crooks' Android-powered Samsung smartphone. The FBI contacted the Cellebrite team and then was transferred to the FBI in Quantico, Virginia, to provide technical support while it was developing new cracking software.

Apple has rolled out the latest version of iOS to the public and it comes with a bunch of new changes that are worth knowing about.

The public beta for iOS 18 has been unveiled, and it covers Apple's range of products with different operating system versions. For example, watchOS18, macOS Sequia, tvOS 18, and of course iPhone's iOS 18, are all available to download now. Users can do this by heading to Settings > Update and then opting into the public beta for the upgraded operating system.

iOS 18 is the operating system version slated to implemented Apple's version of artificial intelligence called Apple Intelligence, but unfortunately many of those main features have been left out of this public beta. Additionally, this article will be covering the top non-AI features currently available in the iOS 18 beta, which should help you decide if you want to upgrade to it or not.

The world's most popular operating system, Windows 10, is slowly losing market share to Microsoft's latest OS, Windows 11, according to the latest figures from Statcounter.

The newly released data sheds some light on Microsoft's market share issue ahead of the company's announced end-of-support date for Windows 10. As you can imagine, Microsoft wants all of its Windows 10 users to make the jump from Windows 10 to Windows 11, but it appears that isn't happening as fast as Redmond would like, as it was only earlier this year that Windows 11 became the first Microsoft OS to lose users to its previous generation. However, the recent data indicates those numbers are turning around.

While Microsoft doesn't reveal official market share numbers for its operating systems, Statcounter does give us an approximate insight into the current situation. The latest numbers state Windows 10 still doubles the market share of Windows 11, with the previous OS commanding 66% and the latest OS inching close to 30%.

For those who were around and used a PC back in the 1990s, you'll undoubtedly remember the hype surrounding the release of Microsoft's groundbreaking operating system, Windows 95. It was a strange time because the release of Windows 95 was treated like a new Star Wars movie or some sort of massive cultural event.

Microsoft spent an eye-watering $300 million on marketing for Windows 95, which in 2024 would be around $620 million - including a commercial that licensed The Rolling Stones' 1981 single "Start Me Up" because Windows 95 introduced the Start button. Microsoft also spent money producing the first "cyber sitcom," with Friends stars Jennifer Aniston and Matthew Perry. It has not aged well.

Anyway, this is a long-winded way of saying that this week, we got a glimpse at a piece of history, with ex-Microsoft executive Brad Silverberg posting an image of the very first copy of Windows 95 that was sent to him straight from the production line.

Microsoft previously announced it was ending support for the world's most popular operating system, Windows 10, and now the Redmond company has announced a version of Windows 11 will soon be losing support.

Microsoft took to its blog on Monday to announce an older version of Windows 11 will soon be reaching its end-of-support date, meaning it will no longer receive any security and preview updates. The blog post states Microsoft will end support for Windows 11 22H2 on October 8, 2024, and after that date, users will need to update to Windows 11 23H3 to receive up-to-date security patches.

Notably, the PSA from Microsoft affects Windows Home, Pro, and Business users. Choosing not to update your Windows will result in your PC becoming vulnerable to viruses, malicious attacks, malware, and other forms of digital infiltration. However, if you are already using Windows 11 it's very easy to update by proceeding through the following steps: Settings > Windows Update > Check updates.

We've just received the latest cumulative updates for both Windows 11 and Windows 10, and interestingly Microsoft has debuted the new Copilot app in both of these desktop operating systems.

Why's that surprising? Well, thus far, the Copilot app - which changes the AI assistant from an anchored side panel, on the right, to a freely movable app window, just like any other application in Windows - has only been tested in Windows 11.

However, as well as debuting in the release version of Windows 11, the Copilot app has suddenly jumped into Windows 10, as well (courtesy of the KB5040442 update for the former, and KB5040427 for the latter). Although note that the rollout of the app is going to be a gradual one.

Microsoft has stuck with its decision to roll out more advertisements for its products into Windows 11, with the Redmond company issuing patch notes for Windows 11 version 23H2 and Windows 11 version 22H2.

As with every Windows update, Microsoft engineers have implemented a slew of bug fixes, general stability improvements, new features, additional support, and advertisements. We have previously caught glimpses of new advertisements in preview builds of Windows 11, where operating system beta testers found new ad placements in Windows 11's Start Menu and Settings. Redmond has rolled out the Settings advertisement for its Game Pass subscription.

The new update will add a Game Pass card to the Settings homepage, which will reportedly only appear for Windows 11 users that game. If a user isn't playing games on their PC, the card won't appear. As for other aspects of the new update, Microsoft has added the "Show Desktop" to the taskbar again, File Explorer is now capable of creating 7-Zip and Tape Archive files when a user right clicks a file, support for Emoji 15.1, improvements to account manage in the Start Menu, and much more.